Spring 2007 • Issue 4

Departm

ent of Religious StudiesB

ox 870264Tuscaloosa, A

L 35487-0264

Nonprofit O

rganizationU

.S. Postage PaidTuscaloosa, A

LPerm

it 16

RE

LI

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OU

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UD

IE

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WS

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ER

8

StudyingR

eligion inCulture

StudyingR

eligion inCulture

ww

w.as.ua.edu/rel

In this issue:

Everything I Needed

to Know

Interview W

ithD

r. Steven Ramey

Articles by G

raduatesand Current Students

Book ReviewN

o god but God

Lectures&

Events

New

s from Faculty

and Alum

ni

What is the A

cademic Study of R

eligion?

This Just In...

Tim D

avis

As an enter-

ing fresh-m

an at The Uni-

versity of Ala-

bama I knew

thatm

y older sister,a junior at thistim

e, was a R

eli-gious Studies m

ajor, but I had no clueas to w

hat she studied. Because she

told me that she had taken courses in

Tibetan Buddhism

and the Hebrew

Bible, I assum

ed that Religious Stud-

ies majors did all of their coursew

orkstudying descriptive inform

ation aboutthe different religions that are foundthroughout the w

orld. In other words,

I thought that my sister spent her day

listening to lectures on topics like why

Hindus don’t eat cow

s and what is the

special relationship between N

ativeA

mericans and the environm

ent. So, Ientered the program

with the hopes of

obtaining general knowledge about the

major religions of the w

orld, such asJudaism

, Christianity, Islam

, Hindu-

ism, and B

uddhism.

Now, as a R

eligious Studies doublem

ajor on the verge of graduation, I re-alize that m

y assumptions about R

eli-gious Studies, or the A

cademic Study

of Religion, w

ere only partly correct.W

hile I still have my original m

ajor inSpanish, I decided to declare a R

eli-gious Studies m

ajor in the Spring ofm

y junior year, after taking severalcourses in the departm

ent at the urgingof m

y sister. Like many students, I

had an array of preconceived notionsabout R

eligious Studies, and since noteveryone has an older sibling that canexplain the ins and outs of R

eligiousStudies to them

, I hope that the fol-low

ing list of assumptions about the

Academ

ic Study of Religion w

ill serveto illum

inate exactly what a R

eligious

Studies major studies.

But before proceeding, I should say

something about w

hy the field, known

in North A

merica as R

eligious Studies,is som

etimes also called the A

cademic

Study of Religion—

in fact, the latternam

e might better describe w

hat ascholar of religion does. B

y calling thefield “R

eligious Studies,” one can seehow

someone w

ho is unfamiliar w

iththis discipline could m

istakenly thinkthat R

eligious Studies is a religious ex-ercise. Put differently, the “studies” ofR

eligious Studies scholars and studentsare not “religious”; rather, scholars andstudents in R

eligious Studies study thatset of data that hum

ans classify as reli-gious, w

hile asking questions such as“W

hat gets to count as “religious?” and“W

hat are the implications of classify-

ing something as “religious?”

Is “Religion” a Stable C

ategory?O

ne of the first questions a student inan entry level R

eligious Studies class,such as R

EL 100, investigates is “What

is Religion?” Students soon realize that

defining religion is not an easy task, forthey discover that opinions differw

idely as to what practices, beliefs, and

institutions get to count as religious.

For example, it is clear that K

arl Marx,

who claim

ed in his work The G

erman

Ideology that “it [religion] is the opiumof the people,” and further that “theabolition of religion as the illusory hap-

piness of the people is required for theirreal happiness,” w

ould not agree with

someone such as M

ohandas K. G

andhiw

ho, instead, claimed that all religions

were true and beneficial to hum

anity.T

hese respective definitions varyw

idely on how religion should be clas-

sified. Without a doubt this classifica-

tion matters, because it portrays the

interests of the respective definers. Forinstance, M

arx’s definition of religionserves his ideology of revolution thatw

ould create a nonreligious comm

uniststate, and G

andhi’s definition serves hisinterest of bringing together H

indus,M

uslims, and other religions to create a

unified, independent India. Given these

differences, students can come to rec-

ognize that religion, as a category, isnot stable but, rather, is a highly de-bated topic. Further, students see thatdefining w

hat gets to count as religiousis one of the m

ost important studies

that the scholar of religion can under-take because m

any times m

uch is atstake in definition and classification. Totake one final exam

ple, a group’s statusas a religion in the U

nited States is de-cided by the Internal R

evenue Service,and w

hether the IRS recognizes a group

as a religion or not has implications rang-

ing from the group receiving or not re-

ceiving nonprofit tax breaks to receiv-ing the protection of free exercise ofreligion under the C

onstitution of theU

nited States.

Only A

dherents Study Religion?

Another m

isconception that is wide-

spread regarding the study of religion isthat one m

ust be religious in order tostudy or know

about religion. This as-sum

ption comes from

the fact thatm

any people believe religion to be aw

ord that names a collection of privi-

leged— beyond critique—

beliefs andbehaviors. O

n the contrary, religion, asit is studied in the secular state univer-

If you’ve made it all the w

ay to the last page then I’m hoping that you agree

that we have som

e pretty good students and pretty active and engagingfaculty m

embers, w

ho are all at the top of their game. A

s readers of pastissues of our new

sletter may have noticed, w

e’ve highlighted our studentsin this issue even m

ore than in the past—both current students and som

e ofour recent graduates. W

e’re proud of them all, and their accom

plishments—

both while on cam

pus and long after they leave Manly H

all—shine a very

kind light on us all.

Russell T. M

cCutcheon

Departm

ent Chair

For the sixth year the Departm

ent hosted an Honors D

ay recep-tion follow

ing the College’s U

ndergraduate Convocation, w

herew

e were able to m

eet the friends and families of our students.

And, once again, Silverstein Fellow

ships were aw

arded—vary-

ing from $500 to $1,000—

to the Departm

ent’s most prom

isingR

EL majors and Judaic Studies m

inors. Am

ong those who w

ereable to attend w

ere (left, bottom to top): Jennifer A

lfano, Keke

Pounds, Jaci Gresham

, Sarah Luken, and Harrison G

raydon;(right, bottom

to top): Stephanie Brennan, Sarah K

elly,K

arissa Rinas, and D

an Mullins.

Am

y PetersenM

emorial Book Fund

On O

ctober 26, 2006, Am

y’s mother, M

s. Jo Petersen, came to Tuscaloosa

to deliver, in person, the final installment that allow

ed the Am

y PetersenM

emorial B

ook Fund to reach its initial goal. The fund has therefore nowbeen endow

ed and will provide a book each for all students in our

Departm

ent’s senior seminar, beginning the Spring 2008 sem

ester. Am

y’sfam

ily hopes that the fund will continue to grow

and, perhaps someday,

endow a student scholarship. The D

epartment is grateful for this fund—

which is in m

emory of A

my, an R

EL minor w

ho died quite unexpectedlyO

ctober 26, 2003—seeing it as tangible evidence that our w

ork with our

students is valued far beyond the classroom.

Tim as he leaps into the future

Before he graduated in the Spring of 2006, REL/Spanish double major

Tim D

avis was asked to think about som

e of the misconceptions of the

academic study of religion. H

ere’s what he had to say.

Getting in the L

ast Word

For more pictures, see

http://ww

w.as.ua.edu/rel/honorsday2007.htm

l.

27

(Alm

ost) Everything IN

eeded to Know

I Learned atM

anly Hall

Mark Prem

o-Hopkins

As m

y law school gradua-

tion draws near, I find m

y-self grow

ing fearful of what the

working w

orld will require. W

hatdo I know

? What do I not know

?A

nd do I know the right things to

survive in the vast land outsideof Studentdom

? I’ve never reallybeen anything but a student for the last 20 years.A

s I look back on my education I realize that for

the most part, w

isdom is not at the top of the

graduate school mountain, but instead am

ongst theairy w

alkways and classroom

s of Manly H

all. Now

I’d like to share a few of teachings that M

anly Hall

has to offer—three basic lessons that I trust w

illprovide a strong foundation for anyone’s post-Studentdom

endeavors.

Don’t take things that aren’t yours

For me, m

y time at M

anly Hall involved w

ritingm

any essays and papers. Now

most of these in-

volved the critique of someone else’s ideas (usually

someone m

uch smarter than m

e). That meant that

I relied, at least in part, on someone else’s w

ritingto provide som

e foundation for my im

portant re-flections. W

hether I was borrow

ing an entire blockquote or just a catchy turn of phrase, I learned theim

portance of citing my sources. It really w

ashelpful—

without this lesson I could have been

kicked out of law school for plagiarism

, disbarredfor intentionally m

ischaracterizing the law in a brief,

sity, is both a category and an aspect ofhum

an behavior that must be subjected

to the same types of scrutiny as any other cat-

egory of human behavior that one m

ay study.Putting the w

ord “academic” in the phrase “The

Academ

ic Study of Religion” indicates that one

uses the same m

ethods in Religious Studies that

would be used in the study of other social sci-

ences. Bruce Lincoln, a prom

inent University of

Chicago scholar, m

akes this point in a brief articleentitled, “Theses on M

ethod” by saying: “Thesam

e destabilizing and irreverent questions onem

ight ask of any speech act ought to be posed ofreligious discourse…

Reverence is a religious, and

not a scholarly virtue.” By pointing out that one

ceases to be a scholar when certain sets of data (in

this case, religious data) are placed beyond cri-tique—

and by critique I mean granting no conces-

sion to a set or sets of data while evaluating the

motives behind the data and historical context

within w

hich the data is situated—Lincoln m

akesclear that religion (both the w

ord and that which it

identifies) is not privileged. Therefore, one doesnot have to be religious to study religion, m

uch likeone does not have to be an artist to study art.

Does R

eligious Studies Market R

eligions?W

hen people learn that I was a R

eligious Studiesm

ajor, it is comm

on for them to ask m

e, “What

religion are you?” People most likely pose such a

question because they assume that R

eligious Stud-ies m

arkets different religions to its students sothat they can each pick one from

the list and be-com

e an adherent. In the same vein, R

eligiousStudies does not seek to dissuade anyone fromtheir particular religious beliefs; rather, it m

erelystudies religion as hum

an behavior in the same

way Political Science or Psychology studies par-

ticular human behaviors. H

ence, the scholar ofreligion studies and teaches religion w

ithout advo-cating or denouncing the object of study (an ap-proach know

n as methodological agnosticism

,m

eaning that the types of tools, or methods, that

scholars use to prevent them from

ever taking astand on the truth of the thing being studied—w

hat they may think in their personal life m

ay beanother thing); the scholar’s approach, then, seeksto ask questions about and find answ

ers to thosehum

an behaviors categorized as religious. Reli-

gious Studies, as pursued in the secular state uni-versity, helps one to critically analyze the beliefs,practices, and institutions classified as religiousbut does not teach one how

to be religious. SinceThe U

nited States’ Constitution guarantees that

“Congress shall m

ake no law respecting an estab-

lishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exer-

cise thereof,” and because state institutions (e.g.,The U

niversity of Alabam

a) receive federal fund-ing, then R

eligious Studies, as pursued in suchinstitutions, m

ust take the methodologically ag-

nostic approach elaborated above.

Conclusion

With these com

mon assum

ptions on the table,one can now

see what the student pursuing a de-

Davis - cont’d

gree in Religious Studies strives tow

ards: studyingthe w

ho’s, when’s, w

hat’s, where’s, and w

hy’s ofthat set of data referred to as religion. B

y askingthese questions w

ith the methodology of a scholar

such as Bruce Lincoln, the student of religion sees

his or her object of study as an interesting facet ofa com

plex human socio-behavioral w

orld. Thus,the student of religion studies those hum

an behav-iors that discourse—

the sum total of assum

ptions,ideas, convention, etc., concerning a subject—

deems

as religions. When one begins to ask the right ques-

tions and looks into the historical context of thedata being studied, then one realizes that peoplethe w

orld over contest the category “religion.” Inthis light, one sees that the student of religion notonly studies w

orld religions, but also evaluates howand w

hy an institution, movem

ent, or group getsto count as a w

orld religion.So if studying both religion and the category “re-

ligion” as an interesting feature of the complex sys-

tem of hum

an behavior called society sounds ap-pealing, then perhaps the R

eligious Studies major

is right for you.

An Interview

with

Dr. Steven R

amey

Heidi H

endrix, a minor in REL who is soon gradu-

ating, was invited to pose a few

questions to Dr.

Steven Ramey, the latest addition to our faculty.

Question: W

hy did you decide to focus on Indiaduring your graduate studies at the U

niversity ofN

orth Carolina?

Answ

er: I enjoy investigating different cultures byvisiting different places, so it is great to be able todo that as a part of m

y career. I chose to studyIndia because of its religious diversity. H

indus,M

uslims, Jains, Sikhs, C

hristians, and others havelived together in India for centuries. I w

anted toinvestigate how

those interactions, both positiveand negative, have developed beyond the extrem

esthat com

monly m

ake the news. From

my research

in India, I have learned that these interactions, andthe labels that w

e use to describe them, are m

uchm

ore complicated than I could have im

agined.

Question: W

hat is one of the most m

emorable

thing you experienced during your fieldwork in In-

dia?A

nswer: H

aving my shoes stolen at a tem

ple. I leftm

y shoes, with everyone else’s, outside a tem

plew

here I did much of m

y research. When I w

asready to leave that afternoon, m

y shoes were no

longer there. Apparently som

ebody decided to“upgrade” to m

y pair of shoes. How

ever, thatperson w

ore them back to the sam

e temple later,

and the temple officials retrieved m

y shoes for me.

They were quite excited to give m

e back my shoes

the next time I w

ent to the temple.

Question: W

hat does your current research entail?A

nswer: I am

working on issues related to the m

i-gration of people from

India into the southeasternU

nited States. Building on m

y dissertation researchon Sindhi H

indus, I am looking at how

Sindhis andother groups w

ithin the larger Hindu com

munity

construct their traditions in the context of the US

South, which highlights the diversity w

ithin Hin-

duism and the com

plex identifications of peoplew

hose formation of H

induism is inseparable from

their national and ethnic heritages.

Question: If you could only eat one food for the

rest of your life, what w

ould it be and why?

Answ

er: Now

that’s an interesting question.C

hoosing just one food is really tough, so I think

that I will cheat a little and choose dosas, a com

mon

food in South India. To make a dosa, you use a thin

batter of ground rice and lentils and cook it like athin pancake, sim

ilar to a crepe.

Question: So how

is that cheating?A

nswer: W

ell, like with crepes, you can fill them

with different vegetable m

ixtures, so it would still

give some variety w

ithin the one food restriction.

Question: Is there a chance, now

that you live inA

labama, that you w

ill ever switch your loyalties

from K

entucky basketball?A

nswer: D

espite spending almost a decade around

the University of N

orth Carolina, I rem

ained faith-ful to m

y UK

heritage, so I doubt that I’ll be con-verted to the C

rimson Tide com

pletely, but I don’tsee m

y loyalty to UK

preventing me from

rootingfor A

labama, except w

hen UA

plays UK

.

Moving Forw

ardJosh M

cDonough

As I sit in this cold classroom

learning the difference be-tw

een an assignment and a sub-

lease, I try to remem

ber how I cam

eto be here. Tw

o years ago, I was in

Tuscaloosa studying Asian reli-

gions, enjoying the more m

oderateclim

es of central Alabam

a. Now

I am in C

hicago,w

here the wind chill is negative tw

enty degrees,and B

uddhism has been replaced by the equally

cold and dispassionate law. One year ago, I w

asvisiting N

orthwestern to learn of their Ph.D

. pro-gram

in Buddhist Studies. W

hat I learned merely

reaffirmed w

hat certain professors had comm

uni-cated to m

e during my four undergraduate years: a

career in academics is an arduous path; traverse it at

your own peril.

So, it may seem

to you fresh-faced religious stud-ies novices that I am

a turncoat. I have chewed off

the hand to which m

y academic experience w

asshackled. B

ut this is not so. I have carried my

academic training w

ith me into the alien lands of the

legal profession, and it has served me w

ell. Basi-

cally, all my Religious Studies courses involved read-

ing and discussion. There was a lot of difficult

reading, but I found it enjoyable. I dodged classesrequiring m

athematical acum

en for a reason. If Irem

ember the past six m

onths correctly, I have readsom

ewhere close to 1700 pages of law

school as-signm

ents. Thus, the assignments w

ith which I am

currently confronted are more of a challenge in term

sof quantity than those I faced during m

y under-graduate tenure, but I honestly believe that I com

-prehend the content of these legal assignm

ents with

minim

al difficulty thanks mostly to the academ

ictraining I received from

the department.

It is true that the Sanskrit, Pali, and Tibetan vo-cabularies have been exchanged w

ith a strange col-lection of Latin phrases, but the overall fram

ework

remains the sam

e. I spend my hours reading opin-

ions, arguments, critiques, and reason-

ing. Current students m

ay worry, as did

I, that upon graduation you will have a

degree that, while engaging and enjoy-

able to earn, will put you at a disadvantage in

this fast-paced, gnaw on the skulls of your neigh-

bors world; how

ever, allow m

e to convince youotherw

ise. You are not just learning about differ-ent religions and social theories. You are not am

ere input device for raw data. Q

uite the con-trary, the im

portant skills you are learning arenot so sim

ple. You are learning, among other

things, how to approach a rich and com

plex areaof hum

an endeavor. You are learning a methodol-

ogy which translates beyond the field of R

eli-gious Studies and can assist you in m

ost areas ofprofessional life.

Oh, and one m

ore thing, as Lieutenant

Colum

bo would say: I arrived in Tuscaloosa in

the Fall of 2001. At that tim

e, the department

basically consisted of offices, some chairs, and a

classroom. D

uring my four years, the depart-

ment w

as transformed through the efforts of

hardworking individuals. These cyborgs do not

rest, even during the summ

er. Alm

ost everym

oment of their tim

e is devoted either to theircourse m

aterial or bettering the department in

some w

ay. I would like to thank the faculty and

Betty (I only m

ention you specifically becauseit w

ill probably embarrass you) for their enthu-

siasm and dedication to providing a quality aca-

demic environm

ent.Josh w

orked in the main office for his senior

year (2004-5) and is now com

pleting his firstyear of law

school at DePaul in C

hicago.

and eventually fired from m

y cushy law firm

job.B

ut my tim

e at Manly H

all taught me an im

por-tant lesson that w

ill help for years to come—

don’t take things that aren’t yours (whether those

things are ideas or something else entirely, like a

bicycle).

Don’t judge a book by its cover

I’ll tell you the first thing I learned when I began

my classes in religious studies: the books are quite

ugly. My personal favorite w

as a Rudolf

Bultm

ann reader that I used for one class. As I

remem

ber it, the book was an oversized paper-

back, with its cover a gloriously repulsive faded

tangerine color. Giant, w

hite block letters—rem

i-niscent of a sign for the D

MV

in Com

munist R

us-sia—

alerted the reader to the book’s title. And

behind the title, covering the entire front of thebook sat a crude w

hite etching of the theologian’shead. It w

as so frightening that I lent the book toone of the local churches for their annual Scare-o-W

een house. How

ever, focusing entirely on theugly book jackets w

ould be disingenuous, and miss

the point because these hideous wrappers hid in-

teresting and beautiful pearls of wisdom

illumi-

nated and elaborated by my teachers. Perhaps the

teachers selected these books intentionally to teachthis extra lesson—

only by overcoming our initial

judgment w

ould we be able to truly appreciate the

actual contents of a text (or a person perhaps?).R

egardless of whether it w

as intentional or just alucky side benefit, I know

I’ll be better preparedfor life thanks to the ugly books in M

anly Hall.

An afternoon snack covers over m

any sinsW

hether you suffer from w

riter’s block, a post-lunch slum

p, or some inner-office tension, an af-

ternoon snack is the salve you need. A Jones Soda

and oatmeal raisin cookie saved m

any of my days

as a student and employee at M

anly Hall. If you’re

mentally or physically tired, a snack w

ill give thecalories you need to get back on track and lastuntil it’s tim

e to clock out. And if, heaven forbid,

you are having problems w

ith someone close to

you, try sharing an afternoon snack with them

.It’s tough to stay m

ad at someone w

hen you’reboth sipping on a Fufu B

erry drink and munching

on a Snickerdoodle cookie, and those interestingphotos on the soda bottle labels can provide youw

ith something non-confrontational to discuss.

Now

I know that m

any professionals prefer ahalf-caf, low

-fat mochachino, but consider stock-

ing your office with Jones sodas and cookies—

itjust m

ight save everyone’s career.A

side from the brilliant teachers and the excit-

ing material in the courses, people can learn m

orefundam

ental lessons while in residence at M

anlyH

all—even after you’ve left M

anly’s friendlyconfines. I’m

sure these lessons will aid your jour-

ney in the sometim

es frightening world outside of

Studentdom.

Mark, w

ho double majored in REL and C

om-

munications, graduated in the Fall of 2003, worked

in the Spring of 2004 in our main office, and then

began law school, that Fall, at the U

niversity ofChicago.

standing of human behavior and interaction but

has also fulfilled that dichotomous paradox pre-

sented even in the mission statem

ent of the Col-

lege of Arts and Sciences: “the C

ollege holds tothe principle that know

ledge must serve hum

an-ity and our environm

ent.” What better w

ay tofulfill this proposition for serving hum

anity andthe environm

ent than the pursuit of majors both

in the humanities and the sciences? So, m

aybethe com

bination of Biology and R

eligious Stud-ies should not be considered the anom

aly it is sooften presented as; rather, it should be view

ed asa desirable, even necessary, com

ponent of a well-

rounded education.Stephanie, w

ho was aw

arded this year’s Out-

standing Student in the Academic Study of Re-

ligion award, w

ill be attending medical school

in the Fall.

Brennan - cont’d

New

s FlashD

r. Maha M

arouan, who w

orked in theD

epartment last year as a one year Instructor,

has been hired as a tenure-track Assistant

Professor, teaching courses on such topics asA

frican Am

erican religion and literature.

63

Steven Ram

ey is focus-ing on the Indian-A

meri-

can comm

unities in At-

lanta and Tuscaloosa, andhas been reflecting on thew

ays ethnic associationsand religious traditionsoverlap. H

is observationsreinforce the critique ofthe divide betw

een religionand culture, w

hich seems to be m

issing in thecom

mon surveys of the religious diversity in the

U.S. H

e has also recently completed a book m

anu-script that brings together his research on SindhiH

indus and their recreation of their practices out-side of their hom

eland in modern day Pakistan.Books the Faculty R

ecomm

endEver w

onder who you really are? W

ell, Prof.Steven R

amey thinks that W

illiam F. Fisher’s

Fluid Boundaries: Forming and Transform

ingIdentity in N

epal (Colum

bia University Press,

2001) won’t help w

ith your identity questions,but it provides an interesting account of a N

epalicom

munity that has its ow

n identity crisis, vocif-erously debating the m

eaning of their religiousand ethnic heritage.

Ted Trost is currentlypursuing tw

o researchprojects. H

e is writing a se-

ries of articles on a televisionadvertising cam

paign designedto counter the m

embership de-

cline in the once-mainline

Am

erican denomination, the

United C

hurch of Christ. H

eis also editing the book The Af-rican D

iaspora and the Study of Religion forM

acmillan Palgrave Press. W

ith Phil Stoltzfus ofSaint O

laf’s College, he is planning a session on

“Religion, Theology, and M

usic” for the upcom-

ing Am

erican Academ

y of Religion meeting in San

Diego.

Prof. Ted Trost recomm

ends Religion and theRise of Jim

Crow in New O

rleans (PrincetonU

niversity Press, 2005), James B

. Bennett offers

a view of the role religion played both to resist,

and eventually to further, racial separation in New

Orleans during the period follow

ing the Civil W

ar.H

e counters the prevailing notion that the JimC

row condition, or segregation, arose alm

ost im-

mediately after that w

ar and was, in any case,

firmly in place by the tim

e Reconstruction ended

in 1877. Religion and the Rise of Jim Crow in New

Orleans serves to highlight a heroic era w

hen anew

hope was articulated and, for a brief tim

e,foreshadow

ed. But it can also be read as another

example of a recurring pattern in A

merican his-

tory, one whose underlying m

alignancy is revealedfrom

time to tim

e—often after the m

ost recenttidal w

ave recedes.

Tim M

urphy is complet-

ing work on a book-length

project entitled The Politicsof G

eist [Spirit]: A Geneal-

ogy of the Phenomenology

of Religion, which details

the way in w

hich the aca-dem

ic study of religionboth reflected and rein-forced European colonial-ism

. He is also com

pletingw

ork on an edited volume, D

efining Religion: AReader, to be published by Equinox Publishers,U

K. H

e teaches in the areas of comparative reli-

gion and theories of religion.

Prof. Tim M

urphy recomm

ends Michael O

ren’sPow

er, Faith, and F

antasy: Am

erica in theM

iddle East: 1776 to the Present (W.W

. Norton,

2007) which is a detailed historical study of the

remarkably consistent and negative view

thatA

mericans have had of Islam

and the Middle East

from the A

merican R

evolution to the current war

in Iraq.

Maha M

arouan hasbeen w

orking on a pa-per on D

avid Bradley’s

novel, The ChaneysvilleIncident, w

hich she isgiving at the C

ollegeLanguage A

ssociationconference in A

pril. Thepaper explores the rep-

resentation of gender and heroism in A

frican Am

eri-can literature, and situates B

radley’s novel in thecontext of current dialogues about race, gender,and cultural representation.

Prof. Maha M

arouan suggests Tama Janow

itz’snovel, A Cannibal in M

anhattan (Bloom

sburyPublishing, 2002) w

hich is a satirical novel which

poses important questions about the representa-

tion of “otherness” in the west. It tells the story

of a reformed cannibal from

an imaginary island

who m

arries a narcissistic Peace Corps volunteer

from N

ew York and m

oves to Manhattan. W

hilehe w

ants to discuss Thoreau at a cocktail party,she tells him

“If you can’t think of anything inter-esting to say just lean against the w

all and looksavage.” It is a w

onderfully sharp satire on thestudy of the O

ther. It is very witty and w

ill defi-nitely m

ake you laugh!

Steve Jacobs’s currentproject is A Brief H

istory ofJudaism

, w

ritten for

Blackw

ell Publishers, En-gland, for their ‘B

rief His-

tories’ series. Other vol-

umes include A Brief H

istoryof C

hristianity, A Brief His-

tory of Islam, A Brief H

is-tory of H

eaven, A Brief His-

tory of Heresy, and A Brief H

istory of the Saints.B

efore the year end, two further volum

es, A Dic-

tionary of Genocide (W

estport: Greenw

ood Press;co-authored w

ith Samuel Totten and Paul R

.B

artrop) and Genocide in the Nam

e of God: Juda-

ism, C

hristianity, Islam (N

ew York and O

xford:B

erghahn Books; editor and contributor), w

ill bepublished.

Prof. Steve Jacobs recomm

ends Among the Righ-

teous: Lost Stories from the H

olocaust’s LongReach into Arab Lands (N

ew York: Public A

f-fairs, 2006). R

obert Satloff explores a little-known

Russell M

cCutcheon re-

cently completed a sm

all in-troductory book on thestudy of religion, devotedm

ainly to the problem of

how to define religion.

Studying Religion: An Intro-duction w

ill be publishedlater in the year by Equi-nox Publishers in the U

K.

Otherw

ise, apart from teaching and other w

ritingprojects, over the past year he has delivered avariety of invited lectures—

most notably, tw

o lec-tures at universities in Sw

itzerland, one in Greece,

and he will soon participate in a conference at the

University of C

openhagen devoted to the idea ofsecularism

.

Prof. Russell M

cCutcheon says that Stephen

Prothero’s Religious Literacy: What Every Am

eri-can N

eeds to Know (And Doesn’t) (H

arper SanFranciso, 2007) argues that A

mericans today know

little about their own traditions and those of their

neighbors. He argues that the sort of religion that

finds salvation in private experience has helped todecrease know

ledge about the beliefs, rituals, andinstitutions of other peoples—

whether dow

n thestreet or across the globe. In places, Prothero’sbook reads like a nostalgic lam

ent for some by-

gone era that may never have actually existed; and

for those who think that the colonial era notion of

“world religions” is today of questionable value

(such as our 2007 Aronov Lecturer, Tom

okoM

asuzawa), calling for people’s better use of this

category surely will be an odd sort of argum

ent.N

onetheless, given that he appeared on “TheD

aily Show” to discuss the book, it surely w

ill bea hot seller.

So, Thinkingof a D

oubleM

ajor?Stephanie B

rennan

Sure, religion is a good thing to have som

etimes

(before a heinous exam or prior to the drop on

the free fall at Six Flags), but in all seriousnessw

hatever one’s involvement w

ith religion may be,

it is undeniable that it is often viewed as a thing to

be practiced on Sundays and certainly not as theideal field of study to pair w

ith a major in biology

and an interest in medicine. H

owever, I w

ould haveto disagree w

ith the latter claim. A

s both a biologyand a religious studies m

ajor, I have often beenquestioned on the com

bination of majors–and for

the past three years as a biology and religious stud-ies m

ajor I have often floundered to find an appro-priate and accurate answ

er to such queries. Now,

as a senior headed for medical school in the fall, I

realize the true benefits of such a partnership. Icam

e to the University of A

labama as a biology

major w

ith a minor in liberal arts through the Blount

Undergraduate Initiative. I have alw

ays had astrong proclivity tow

ard science, and participat-ing in laboratory research and internships in theB

iology Departm

ent over the past four years hasgiven m

e even greater insight into the importance

of academic science. H

owever, just as there is m

oreto an individual than D

NA

, there is more to a good

college education than can be found in a singledepartm

ent. I feel that majoring in R

eligious Stud-ies has not only broadened the scope of m

y under-

Book Review

:N

o god but GodK

arissa Rinas

No god but G

od, by R

eza Aslan (R

andomH

ouse, 2006), is inundatedw

ith a discriminating history

of Islam in order to advance

“an argument for reform

.” Ac-

cording to the author, this ref-orm

ation is inevitable, and hasalready begun. The text ism

eant to reveal that this is in-deed the case. No god but G

odasserts that characterizing the reform

ation as a clashbetw

een the West and the M

iddle East, rather thanan internal struggle betw

een Muslim

s, is inaccu-rate. H

owever, the data presented reveals m

oreabout the author’s preferences and m

ethodologythan it does about Islam

.A

slan’s text contains a fair amount of data about

the “sacred history,” or myths of Islam

. Aslan first

focuses on the emergence of Islam

and the life ofM

uhamm

ad, claiming that Islam

, originally, was

essentially religiously tolerant, just, and egalitar-ian—

suggesting this is what Islam

should espousetoday. The text states that the Prophet’s faith w

asa confirm

ation of the sacred texts of Judaism and

Christianity, and all three religions w

orship thesam

e god. Islamic w

omen are represented as inte-

gral to Muham

mad’s success. The veil—

nowview

ed as a symbol of oppression—

was intended

only for Muham

mad’s w

ives. This kind of incon-gruity betw

een sacred Islamic history and m

odernsym

bolism calls into question the “authenticity”

of modern Islam

as opposed to a nascent form of

Islam, one that A

slan seems eager to endorse and

contextualize. Ancient Islam

ic traditions, he con-tends, m

ust be understood as embroiled in their

time period and specific circum

stances. Contexts

to be considered include the tribal ways life versus

the more sedentary w

ays of life, the traditionalistdoctrine versus the rationalist doctrine, and theinfluence of other cultures and religions. A

slan alsow

rites extensively about Islam after the death

of Muham

mad, em

phasizing subsequent interpre-tations that “corrupted” the original Islam

ic faith.A

slan’s causal recounting of change over time

in the Muslim

faith culminates in explicating the

situation Islam finds itself in today—

which he uses

to justify his assertion that an Islamic reform

ationis necessary.

Reza A

slan targets his book to Westerners w

hoare unfam

iliar with Islam

beyond representationsof the religion/faith in their ow

n popular media.

Additionally, his ideal audience values ‘typically

Western’ virtues—

democracy, equality, faith-based

morality, and freedom

of religion. This kind of au-dience is m

ost likely to sympathize w

ith Aslan’s

agenda and the reformation he argues for. To m

eetthe needs of his target readers, A

slan’s book oftenresem

bles a history of Islam. This abbreviated, se-

lective history is often presented in story form,

descriptively embellished like a standard fictional

novel. Such a method is efficacious; it caters to

Reza Aslan’s audience by m

aking the material easier

for them to engage in, and capitalizes on A

slan’sabilities as a trained fiction w

riter.There are at least four other system

atic ways in

which A

slan’s scholarly motives are served w

ithinthe book, including: appealing to historical andscholarly data, appealing to scriptural data, m

ain-taining analogies/references to other cultures, andexposing authenticating devices of a given ‘other.’

His appeals to historical and scholarly data are

the most copious of these four literary/argum

en-tative m

echanisms. A

slan takes some historical

assertions to be true while rejecting others. Sim

i-larly, he relies on the interpretations of variousscholars to validate his w

ork while discrediting

the claims of scholars w

hose work does not flatter

his ideals. For example, in chapter four, he quotes

Max W

eber: “ ‘Islam w

as never really a religion ofsalvation…

Islam is a w

arrior religion,’” and thenim

mediately contrasts this quotation w

ith ahistorical (and political) claim

: “This deep-rootedstereotype of Islam

as a warrior religion has

its origins in the papal propaganda of the Cru-

sades, when M

uslims w

ere depicted as thesoldiers of the A

ntichrist” (79). Later on, he praisesK

aren Arm

strong’s work and uses it to bolster his

own (93).Throughout the book, quotes from

the Quran

are used to justify a particular point. For example,

Aslan claim

s that “the Quran goes to great lengths

to emphasize the equality of the sexes in the eyes

of God,” relays his ow

n translation of some

Qurannic verses, and finally clarifies that “the

Quran acknow

ledges that men and w

omen have

distinct and separate roles in society; it would

have been preposterous to claim otherw

ise in sev-enth-century A

rabia” (60-61). Aslan uses the

Quran to justify som

e types of practice or inter-pretation and discredit others. In chapter three, hepresents tw

o translations of Qurannic verses that

pertain to the relation between m

en and wom

en,pointing out that “if religion is indeed interpreta-tion, then w

hich meaning one chooses to accept

and follow depends on w

hat one is trying to ex-tract from

the text” (70).N

o god but God abounds in references to other

religions and/or cultures. Aslan seem

s to often usethis as a m

eans of showing the sim

ilarities be-tw

een Islamic tradition or history and other ‘m

a-jor’ religions. In this w

ay, the author can legiti-m

ize Islam as entity evolving just as other reli-

gious traditions have. From chapter nine: “[The]

remarkable evolution in C

hristianity from its in-

ception to its Reform

ation took fifteen vicious,bloody,

and occasionally

apocalypticcenturies.…

Islam has finally begun its fifteenth

century” (248).Lastly, R

eza Aslan also points out the authen-

ticating devices of a distinct ‘other’ to undermine

their claims. These legitim

izing mechanism

s areusually social, political, or econom

ic in nature.C

oncerning the validity of the hadith in chapterthree, A

slan’s readers discovers the following state-

ment: “w

ith each successive generation, the ‘chain

of transmission,’ or isnad, that w

as sup-posed to authenticate the hadith grewlonger and m

ore convoluted, so that....thegreat m

ajority...were unquestionably fab-

ricated by individuals who sought to legitim

izetheir ow

n particular beliefs and practices by con-necting them

with the Prophet” (67). A

lthoughR

eza Aslan is him

self prone to a particular contextthat prom

pts this very same kind of attem

pt atauthentication, he nevertheless postulates m

anyhistorical m

echanisms that originate from

others.These devices found in R

eza Aslan’s w

ritingserve to authenticate his ow

n particular percep-tion of his topic w

hile undermining the opposing

view. In this way, A

slan’s thesis is made all the

more clear—

by positing an oppositional ‘other’that challenges his ow

n assessment, he reveals just

what his view

is not, and his preferences are bothreadily m

aintained and made accessible in No god

but God.

Karissa is a graduating senior, m

ajor in RELand Philosophy, w

hose current interests includeapplying findings from

cognitive psychology to thestudy of religion.

and less-told story of those who saved and/or at-

tempted to save Jew

s from the N

azi machine’s

encroachment into the M

iddle East during the Sec-ond W

orld War. Fluent in A

rabic, with both an

historian’s eye for detail and a journalist’s skill inw

riting, he brings to the reader’s attention a part ofthe H

olocaust story otherwise lost.

Continued on Page 7

Faculty Update

45

Religion in Culture Lectures

Aronov Lecture SeriesEach year, the D

epartment sponsors

the Religion in C

ulture Lecture series which con-

sists of various speakers on a variety of topics ofrelevance to our students and classes. These lec-tures are now

held at Gorgas Library, Room

205.We

also follow m

any of these with a R

eligion in Cul-

ture Student Luncheon, which involves the guest

speaker and many of our students w

ho spend thelunch hour discussing a piece of the guest’s currentresearch. This gives the students an opportunity tointeract w

ith our guest speakers and with the de-

partment professors, m

any of whom

attend.

For more inform

ation on these lectures,please see our w

ebsite http://ww

w.as.ua.edu/rel/events.htm

l.

ThinkingM

ythologicallyW

illiam G. D

oty

Preparing for an extended

interview w

ith Dr. M

ax Vogtabout m

y approaches to my-

thology—it w

ill be podcast inthe zines M

ungBeing and

Mythic Passages—

here I avoidcovering the m

ythological stud-ies w

aterfront and highlight just a few of the em

-phases that I have developed in recent publica-tions and w

ork with graduate students at the U

ni-versity of A

labama and at Pacifica G

raduate Insti-tute near Santa B

arbara. Myth: A H

andbook, in theG

reenwood Folklore Handbooks series (2004; and

in licensed paperback, 2007, The University of

Alabam

a Press) reflects many of m

y orientations,but a num

ber of essays and books (such as Myths

of Masculinity, 1993) have also created a few

waves

in the field.For this brief article I select just a few

empha-

ses—not, I hasten to add, necessarily m

y own

inventions (I could cite chapter and verse for many

of the points), but certainly emphases com

binedin w

ays peculiar to my ow

n scholarly viewpoints.

Constantly across m

y work I have em

phasizedthe ethnographic contexts and the history of re-ception of m

ythological items (such as narratives,

images, characters). O

ften I have been able to pointout that m

ythological accounts represent daily life,although they m

ay be regarded variously acrossany particular society—

normative for som

e folks,

mere entertainm

ents for others. I am less interested

in how som

ething originated than in how it is

originary—that is to say, how

its multiple possible

interpretations seed revisions and reimaginings of

social significance. And w

hile my approach has been

criticized for my functional, practical bias, I still

emphasize very strongly the im

portance of socialm

odeling. Myths have a great deal to do w

ith gen-der ideals, national identity, and the w

ay reality isrepresented—

it is never “natural,” but always so-

cially constructed (the word natural m

akes me break

out with hives no less than the term

s true, real,etc.). W

e look at the broadest contexts, includingother m

ythologies, to gain a sense of influences andintertextualities.

Furthermore, I am

particularly interested in theaffective aspects of m

yth—w

hatever it is that con-stitutes “m

ythicity.” We m

ight speak of the sort of“existential grab” by w

hich we recognize a story or

image as m

ore important and enchanting than the

columns in the daily new

spaper. Myth im

portantlyconveys a sense of significance that can usually befelt across cultural or linguistic boundaries.

That means, of course, that m

ythological materi-

als have long-term im

portance to their users, and inm

ost cultures, they are materials that have im

por-tance in education or ritual—

or today, in advertis-ing and the televisual equivalent of pulp fiction.Such leads m

e to question strongly the twentieth-

century emphasis upon “personal appropriation”

of myths—

the sort of thing highly visible in vari-ous religio-psychological “how

to” therapies, which

often boils down to “A

Venus-identified wom

anshould seek an A

res-identified male.”

While m

ost dictionary definitions of myth stress

a narrative, I am m

ore and more im

pressed with

how the m

ythic functions quite apart from particu-

lar stories. It may be represented by

themes, characters, im

ages, attitudes,and so forth. A

nd those whose atten-

tion to mythology ends w

ith theG

reeks or Rom

ans seem to m

e to have cut off avital source of cultural creativity that is hardlylim

ited to antiquity, but remains vibrantly active

in our contemporary w

orlds—for instance, in The

Matrix or Star W

ars franchises, even Fight Club.

Perhaps it will have becom

e clear that I seem

yths everywhere, though I often recognize them

only after doing my historical hom

ework. A

nd Ithink w

e experience myths as traces (in language,

in social patterns) and fragments, very m

uch asfolks in antiquity did. There w

ere no “handbooksof m

yth” in the Greek w

orld, for instance—until

it began to decay and Alexandrian intellectuals

undertook to create universal models for w

hathad previously been strictly-local deities (theZeus of G

ordo, the Achilleus of D

emopolis).

And finally, I’ll just stress that m

yths are notm

erely conservative, but also evocative, stimu-

lating by educing variant imaginings of possible

psyche- or role-models. A

s with any aspect of

the religio-political system, they can shut dow

ncreativity w

hen it is insisted that they are never-changing or god-sent (the fundam

entalist inter-pretations, especially of scriptural stories). B

utm

yths can also provide re-thinking, alternativeview

s of what is possible for the com

monw

eal,and that m

eans that those in political power w

illalw

ays take Plato’s perspective that myths are

dangerous and must be lim

ited to only those therulers approve.

Prof. William

Doty retired from

the Depart-

ment in the Fall of 2001 and has since then

been busy with w

riting projects, consultations,and teaching for such other units as the H

onorsC

ollege.

Alum

ni New

s—W

here Are They N

owJohn Parrish (2004) has been w

orking on a Mas-

ter of Arts in R

eligious Studies at the University

of Alberta, Edm

onton. Hoping to defend his the-

sis soon, John spends most of his tim

e checkingfor acceptance letters from

Ph.D. program

s. Sofar, no luck, but in just in case, John w

ill gladlyaccept your generous donations to the “Send Johnto G

rad School Fund.”

Marianne Stanton (2005) m

oved back to Dal-

las and is working as a private tutor at Lutheran

High School. H

er concentrations include upperlevel m

ath and science, but she tried out her coach-ing skills in cross country and soccer this pastyear. M

arianne is contemplating going after a

teaching certificate in hopes of propulsion into afull-tim

e job.

Peter von Herrm

ann (2003)—he reports that

nothing’s new. (Thanks for the update, Peter.)

Melanie W

illiams (2006) fled the country after

graduation and was w

andering around Europe.She backpacked until she reached a preset degree

of cultural intelligence (or March). Then, it’s off to

Northw

est Culinary A

cademy of Vancouver to learn

to cook foie gras and such.

Kristin Bradbury (2005) began m

edical school af-ter graduation. C

urrently a second-year studentat Q

uillen College of M

edicine, she anticipates re-ceiving her M

.D. in M

ay 2009 and hopes to returnto A

labama to com

plete residency and set upshop. W

ithout a declared specialty, her interestslinger in em

ergency medicine and pediatric rheum

a-tology.

Samantha Sastre (2006) w

as accepted into agraduate certification program

at Southern Poly-technic State U

niversity in Marietta, G

eorgia, andis currently studying Inform

ation Technology. Though this area of study m

ay seem like a far cry

from R

eligious Studies, she feels that the lessonsand m

ethods of study gleaned from her tim

e in theR

EL department w

ill be invaluable in such a field. D

espite having presently traded Nietzsche for net-

working, Sam

antha believes her mold is not set yet.

Kim

Davis w

ill finish her Master’s degree in M

ay2007 in French linguistics from

the University of

Alabam

a. Upon graduation, she hopes to find a

job teaching French in the Birm

ingham area. A

lsoinvolved w

ith the Alabam

a Academ

y of IrishD

ance, Kim

is a dancer and assistant for theTuscaloosa area.

Tim

Davis (2006) tries to teach eighth graders

the “ins and outs” of the meaning system

Englishspeakers com

monly refer to as the Spanish lan-

guage. In addition,this newfound position w

ithinA

labama’s highly bureaucratic public education

system is really m

aking it difficult for him to live

the authentic existence he pursued as a collegestudent.

Casey M

atz (2004) is currently working in loss

prevention for Target. He reports he’s com

pletelynot utilizing his degrees but having a blast be-cause no tw

o days are the same. H

e married his

college sweetheart, R

ebecca (Ham

mel) M

atz, andlives in Pflugerville, TX

, with their tw

o dogs.

Alexis M

cCrossen, of Southern M

ethodist Uni-

versity, spoke in September on docum

enting reli-gion in the D

epression era..

Maha M

arouan (right) introduces our History

Departm

ent’s Josephine Nhongo Sim

banegavi,in January; she spoke on A

frican traditional reli-gions.

It’s So Much Fun, W

e’re Surprised They Call it W

ork

Spring 2007 Student Workers, left to right: Sarah Luken,

Karissa R

inas, and Jennifer Alfano. Sarah and Jennifer

also worked this past Fall in our office, along w

ith Tsy Yusef.O

ur student workers are all also Silverstein R

ecipients.

Prof. Steve Jacobs taught a REL100 this Spring

and was assisted by K

arissa Rinas, pictured here

on our second floor balcony.

Tsy Yusef and Prof. Tim

Murphy

clowning around prior to class. Tsy

worked w

ith Prof. Murphy assisting him

with his R

EL100 class in Fall 2006.

Robert O

lin, Dean

of the College of

Arts and Sciences,

not only

helpedfund

this year’s

Aronov

Lecture

but also welcom

edthose attendeding.This year’s lecturerw

as Dr. Tom

okoM

asuzawa (U

niver-sity of M

ichigan). Her w

ork is on the study ofreligion’s relations tothe era of Europeancolonialism

. Her lec-

ture attracted a diversegroup (pictured below

:G

eorge William

son,of

History,

andM

arcia Barrett, of theU

niversity Libraries)and w

as on the con-cept “w

orld religions,”first developed in the18

th and 19th centuries. The annual A

ronov Lecture,

which w

as founded in the Fall of 2002, aims to

present a nationally recognized scholar of religioncapable of addressing topics of w

ide relevancethroughout the H

umanities.

In March, Prof. Ted Trost hosted a lunchtim

e dis-cussion on the 100-level introductory course. Pic-tured attending (left to right): Sarah L

uken,B

arclay Ow

ens, and Sam Shabel. O

ther lunch-tim

e discussions this year focused on the work of

the philosopher, Dr. B

arbara Forest (SE LouisiannaU

niversity, who also delivered a public lecture as

part ofthe alabama Lecture’s on Life’s Evolution),

along with our very ow

n Profs. Jacobs,M

cCutcheon, and R

amey.